Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note that there were no Reserve Members in attendance.

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Sub-Committee;

(b)               all other Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

All Agenda Items

CouncillorMrs Vina Mithani declared a non-pecuniary interest in that she was employed by Public Health England.  She would remain in the room whilst the matters were considered and voted upon.

Councillor Chris Mote declared a non-pecuniary interest in that his daughter was employed at Northwick Park Hospital and that he was employed in the private health sector.  He would remain in the room whilst the matters were considered and voted upon.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2014 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2014, be taken as read and signed as a correct record, subject to the following amendment to minute 21:

RESOLVED: To note

(1)               that 1 public question had been received and responded to and the recording had been placed on the website;

(2)               no Petitions or References had been received.

To receive any public questions received in accordance with Committee Procedure Rule 17 (Part 4B of the Constitution).

Questions will be asked in the order notice of them was received and there be a time limit of 15 minutes.

[The deadline for receipt of public questions is 3.00 pm, 19 November 2014.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk  

No person may submit more than one question].

RESOLVED:  To note that none were received.

Report of the Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning.

The Sub Committee received a report of the Divisional Director, Strategic Commissioning which provided an update on the work of the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Following a brief overview of the report by an officer, Members highlighted the following concerns regarding the report from the Central London, West London, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hounslow and Ealing Clinical Commissioning Groups (CWHHE) submitted to JHOSC regarding the planned transition of maternity and interdependent services from Ealing Hospital to the other West London Hospitals:

·                    the transition of maternity and interdependent services would impact heavily on Hillingdon and Northwick Park Hospitals;

·                    the recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of the North West London Hospital’s Trust had rated the standard of care at Northwick Park Hospital Maternity Services as ‘Inadequate’ and that measures set out in the CQC Compliance Action Plan for Maternity Services at Northwick Park Hospital were still in the early stages of implementation;

·                    lessons should have been learnt from the recent transfer of A&E services from Central Middlesex and Hammersmith Hospitals to other West London hospitals.  In particular, the fact that A&E services at Central Middlesex had closed before measures to increase capacity at Northwick Park had been implemented, which had resulted in additional pressures on resources and capacity issues at A&E services at Northwick Park Hospital.

Bearing in mind the above points, the Sub-Committee was of the view that maternity and interdependent services at Ealing Hospital should not be closed  unless

(i)                 the Maternity unit at Northwick Park hospital had the capacity to absorb the additional cases;

(ii)               the implications and risks relating to the transfer of Maternity Services from Ealing to other West London Hospitals had been fully explored and evaluated.

Members requested that the above concerns be communicated at the earliest opportunity to the CWHHE.

RESOLVED:  That

(1)               a letter to the CWHHE, setting out the Sub-Committees concerns regarding the transfer of maternity and interdependent services from Ealing Hospital to other West London Hospitals be sent on behalf of the Sub-Committee;

(2)               the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Operating Officer, Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group.

The Sub-Committee received a report of Chief Operating Officer, Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group, which had previously been considered at the Health and Wellbeing Board on 6 November 2014.

It was noted that the CCG had been invited to attend the meeting to respond to Members’ questions, however, no one from the CCG was present at the meeting.  Members therefore requested that their comments below be forwarded to the CCG for consideration.

An adviser to the Sub-Committee stated that the final version of the report had been issued earlier in the day and differed only slightly from the draft version, which had been circulated to the Sub-Committee.

The adviser added that the issue of decommissioning of community services at Northwick Park Hospital and their re-commissioning from other sources in 2015/16 should be added to the Sub-Committee’s work programme.  Members concurred with this view and agreed that a progress report should be sought in due course from the Hospital Trust regarding this.

Members also made the following comments and highlighted the following areas of concern in the report:

·                    identification of key health priorities and health inequalities for Harrow was a positive, however, there was insufficient detail in the report as to how these would be addressed;

·                    the possible impact of the potential closure of three children’s centres in Harrow and the impact on the provision of health services that used those premises;

·                    the potential impact of reduced grant funding to voluntary and community sector bodies (VCS) in Harrow and how this would affect the CCGs stated intention to actively engage with the VCS;

·                    the likelihood that the out of hospital strategy would increase GP’s workloads;

·                    the fact that mental health services had been prioritised for improvement, was a positive.

Following questions and comments from Members, it was advised that Harrow CCG was looking for a suitable site for an additional primary care walk in centre in Harrow.

An officer advised that a CQC inspection of CNWL was planned for February 2015.  The Members agreed that that the Sub-Committees comments regarding this would be forwarded to the CQC prior to the inspection.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.